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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25650391">The Shadow of a Man</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneSorrow/pseuds/SereneSorrow'>SereneSorrow</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bleach</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Quincy Kurosaki Ichigo, Sad, Thousand Year Blood War Arc, which is the point</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:48:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,949</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25650391</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneSorrow/pseuds/SereneSorrow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurosaki Ichigo was a boy.<br/>Not a Shinigami, or a Hollow or a Quincy.<br/>He was just a human boy.</p><p>No one seemed to notice.</p><p>Until they decided he was useless.<br/>Until he found a use for himself.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>189</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue - 1987</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So, as I was writing this chapter one, the way I described Ossan 'shadow of a man' reminded me of the song: In the Valley of the Dying Sun by House of Heroes, so I listened to the song again and after realizing how similar the song was to the story I wanted to write I got REALLY carried away with trying to mix and match all the lyrics with parts of the story and it got kind of weird... fun weird?<br/>So you may want to go look up the lyrics to see for yourself...<br/>The song is also where the title of this story came from. :D</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     In the dark, in the cool night air, with the moonlight shining brightly through the window. In the room decorated with bright colors now shadowed, in the sturdy wooden crib hung with a mobile of stars. A soul of three stirred awake, eyes glinting in the light. The shadow of a man, hair stirred with an angel's breath, stepped forward to look down upon his charge. The boy, whose future he could see clearly, the peaceful heart born to the life of the sword. The child with bright orange hair reached up with both hands toward the shadow and the man smiled faintly, putting thoughts of the future aside to bask in the moment of the child's happiness. Drifting into formless shadow the man returned to his child's heart to rest.</p><p>     A blink of distraction and the false stars above caught the child's eye, fascinated by the glittery foam more than one young boy gazed upward. Hands reaching but arms not long enough, in frustrated determination a white figure slither-walked up the bars of the crib. Tail flicking back and forth for balance as the masked lizard leaned out over the arm and bent the stars lower under it's own weight. With a giggle the red-headed boy caught one of the stars and pulled it until the string snapped, then began chewing on one mushy corner as he stared up at his brother.</p><p>     The thin body above had gleaming white scales interrupted by a hole in his middle, red fur around his neck, and a mask with two long horns reaching as far forward as his nose. Black and gold eyes gazed down at his brother before he crawled back along the rim of their nest, excited to try a new trick. He made his way to the middle of one long side and slowly pushed himself up onto his two back feet, balancing precariously and waving his tail and forelimbs in the air so that he wouldn't fall. Below, the boy laughed at his twin brother's new trick, enjoying the fun his brother had when he came out to play.</p><p>***</p><p>     With a groan Kurosaki Masaki rolled her head to one side, ear tilted toward the stairs. She was sure she'd just heard Ichigo make a sound, why her baby insisted on staying up late when she knew he could sleep through the night was beyond her. Standing up from the couch she ignored Isshin's wail's about his son not letting daddy have any of mommy's attention. They were only watching the news anyway.</p><p>     She chuckled at her husband's antics, knowing that Isshin would settle down by the time she got to Ichigo's room so that he wouldn't keep Ichigo awake. With a sigh she pushed her little angel's door open further, hoping to see that he had fallen back to sleep on his own since she didn't hear any crying.</p><p>     Instead, as the door slowly opened her eyes caught the gleam of moonlight on pale white scales, and a mask of bone. Fear, terror, panic shot through her veins as her heart wrenched in her chest and Masaki slammed the door open uncaring that it crashed against the wall and of the noise it made.</p><p><em>     'Hollow-Hollow-there's a Hollow on Ichigo's crib!'</em> Masaki's thoughts gibbered as she drew her bow, purification was all well and good but Isshin was downstairs and<em> 'the monster wants to eat my baby!'</em> was all she could think.</p><p>     Before the lizard-thing could lunge into the crib Masaki loosed the arrow and reduced the monster to reishi particles, dropping her bow immediately and darting over to the crib where Ichigo had started to scream. Reaching in and scooping him into her arms Masaki rocked him as she scanned the room, relieved that there were no other Hollows in sensing range. She didn't know how she had missed that one, or how it had gotten into the house but there weren't any more. In her arms Ichigo continued to wail, squirming and struggling as she tried to look closer at his face and arms for any bites.</p><p>     There wasn't enough light in the room but Isshin flipped the switch on as he came into the room behind her, worried at having sensed her use of reishi. Together they checked and concluded that Ichigo was unharmed, just scared, and together they stayed up all night with him as he screamed and cried after the close call. He must have been so scared of the Hollow, <span><span>already able to identify it as something bad, her Ichigo was so strong but still so small. Masaki held him close all night while their whole little family fretted over the terrifyingly close call.<br/>
</span></span></p><p>***</p><p>     Among the unformed riot of colors and shapes within the boy's heart the shadowed man stumbled to his knees as the rending pain consumed him. Harsh breaths as he tried to center and steady himself grew humid, and when his vision cleared he watched in dismay as the rain of innocent tears watered the new river forming between a purple hill and a yellow tree. The river moved in a rush, swelling rapidly until it cut through the landscape from one end to the other far beyond sight.</p><p>     His own shock he set aside and buried deep, looking ahead at the ragged edge of the sky where one third of their soul bled. Forcing himself to his feet he made his way through the newly damp landscape, traveling to the wound. The last wisps of red-edged black reiryoku he gathered tightly, building a strong stone container that Ichigo could not yet have managed, to protect the last pieces of their third.</p><p>     He hadn't wanted this. He knew the call the boy was meant to answer one day. He knew that the Hollow was one step closer to the Shinigami, to their father, but danger of swaying Ichigo to <em>their</em> side or not he was still one third of <em>them</em>.</p><p>     Now, he could feel, their days were numbered.</p><p>     The ache as the rain fell and the hole in their world, he might not be enough to ease, to fill. He thought again of the future, of plans, that were now perhaps important for another reason altogether.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>In case you're wondering about updates, I try to keep a list of what I've got ready on my profile, but I'm planning to post the next chapter of this on September 1.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Prologue Pt. 2 - June 17, 1995</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So this is ridiculously short, but it just didn't fit as part of chapter 1, they are clearly separate events with several years between them, so yeah. (although that makes it all the more absurd that it took so long to update, oops.)<br/>and this chapter still has a lot of that song in it...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     Tonight was only just the start, act one of the theatre, and it began on a riverbank as the waters rose higher. A soul of two strode hand in hand with an overcast light. Though they rushed carefully through the storm it roared in fury at their passing and the child with bright orange hair cloaked in darkness from the rain turned aside from the murderess that held his small hand so tight.</p><p>     Caught in the child's hollowed eyes a bundle of screaming rage surged toward them through the torrent and glowing blue lights absorbed the life around two figures, lancing toward the tempest. As it came on it made the small one think of another, an even smaller, but he kept on to keep himself from being killed in turn.</p><p>     On the edge of awareness the shadow struggled to undo the curse that had burdened him for all of his short life, but the desire was not enough to change the design. A flash, crescendo, and the orchestrated dawn arrived. Like stars in the night sky the shine winked out and the child was only one of many who fell to the earth, now a soul of one.</p><p>***</p><p>     “I don't know what happened, he just collapsed. I managed to destroy the hollow before it could get to either of us but I didn't see if anything else got to him!” Masaki looked frantically on as she spoke, while Isshin inspected Ichigo's unconscious form with glowing green reiatsu around hands.</p><p>     “I'm not finding an injury, but his reiatsu is fluctuating badly, jumping from his usual output and then down to almost nothing.” Isshin replied, still concentrating on their ten year old son.</p><p>     “What do we do?” Massaki asked no one in particular, worried for her son as well as the future.</p><p>     Ichigo was so important, to her but also to the world, to all three worlds. Seeing him injured was terrible, and she couldn't help remembering the last time a hollow had come so close to her baby. That terrifying night when she'd destroyed a hollow crouching on Ichigo's crib, it flashed through her mind so clearly and she watched her son again with that same fear in her heart.</p><p>     “We can't lose him Isshin, you know that we can't.” She said helplessly, comforted by the determination set in his gaze when he looked briefly up at her.</p><p>     Their shared gaze didn't last long, but in the time that they were both looking away from their son they missed something.</p><p>***</p><p>     Under their distracted gaze Ichigo's eyes blinked open in the exam room and landed on two smaller faces in the doorway. He could feel the holes in his own soul, but was relieved to find no distress on their faces to match the anguish he felt himself. A flicker caught his attention, and he saw the holes filling in around them, as though nothing was amiss. They wouldn't even know what they were missing now. The weight of the hole in his chest dragged him back down into darkness before he could say one word, and the two confused faces were the last thing he saw.</p><p>***</p><p>     Within, a stone vault cracked open, and wisps of red-edged black reiatsu seeped free. They flooded into a long dug hole and found scarred over edges no longer bleeding. Moving on over dull, colorless ground through rain as thick as sheets, they <span>came across</span> a new rent in the landscape. Around the last edges of blue-white light the red-edged black clung tightly and bonded to what little was left of the two separate thirds of one soul.</p><p>     Together, the last vestiges of a broken soul held itself together thinking of only itself, because there was only itself to understand. The bleeding edges settled, lowering into the well of what was left, and flickered into a dormant rest. A long time, waiting, laying ahead before they would burn on and on again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Okay, but this time I'm SURE that I will post the next chapter on November 1. REALLY REALLY SURE.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 1 - August 7, 2000</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     “So we both managed to meet our zanpakutō spirits but Karin's the only one who's learned a name. I'm still trying to hear mine clearly, I don't know why I can't.” Yuzu's voice drifted up the stairs as Ichigo descended toward the dinner table.</p><p>     The twins were back from their training trip then, to that shady shop that never actually sold any candy. Ichigo had only been there a handful of times, mostly to walk his sisters to their training after school when they were younger and Masaki was too busy. The weird looks he got from that Urahara-<em>creep</em> every time they met made Ichigo uncomfortable and he always ducked back out of the building as soon as he could. He hated those shadowed eyes, watching him behind that fan like the old guy knew something about Ichigo that he didn't know himself. It was absurd, because Ichigo was pretty damn sure that <em>he</em> knew more about his own soul than the ex-shinigami did.</p><p>     “Well, Urahara-sensei said that Yuzu's younger, so maybe she got less of the Hollow's reiryoku when we were born. I don't think that's really how it works though, I think that inherited reiryoku-based powers probably work more like DNA. Not that I know a lot about that either, but it sounds like that's how it should work. Yuzu still could have gotten less Hollow reiryoku, just not for the reasons Urahara-sensei said.” Karin put in as she scooped salad onto her plate.</p><p>     “That's my girls! Both so far along in training already! It takes most Shinigami decades to meet their zanpakutō spirits! You make me so proud!” Isshin wailed with tears on his face as he looked over both girls and turned to his wife.</p><p>     “Yes, that's wonderful! I almost wish that these spirits weren't such private business, I'm sure that they match you girls perfectly and I wish I could hear all about them, they're part of my precious girls after all!” Masaki gushed as she put the last of the food on the table and took her own seat.</p><p>     Ichigo unobtrusively pulled out his own chair by the corner of the table and silently sat down. Karin handed the salad bowl across the table to Isshin, so Ichigo waited for everyone else to be done serving themselves before taking a small portion of whatever was left within reach. He hated getting up to move around the table or reach over it, and asking anyone to pass him something always drew their attention, which was the worst thing he could get.</p><p>     He felt safer when he wasn't noticed, at least he felt less like he didn't belong when he just stayed in his place. Ichigo hated the way his family talked endlessly about their spiritual abilities, and about Karin and Yuzu's training, they never thought of him as someone who could contribute to that topic so getting their attention was just getting looks of pity. That or Karin snapping at him<em> 'what would you know about it'</em> or Yuzu asking if he was jealous, as though she wanted to work out his feelings, which he didn't have. Not jealousy anyway.</p><p>     As if he would be jealous of getting trained to fight against some faceless bad guy who <em>might</em> come after them someday. His sisters were just kids, stupid kids, who didn't get that they were being used. There was no <em>might</em> about it, Urahara-creep was definitely counting on the twins to fight that Aizen guy at some point. Ichigo was damn glad that he <em>wasn't</em> the one getting trained up for it. Besides, he was pretty sure that he <em>did</em> know more about Quincy and Shinigami powers than the twins did. He still remembered everything that Ossan had taught him when he was a boy, before Ossan had died too, like Shiro.</p><p>     Ossan had told him all about Quincy and their ability to collect reishi and combine it with their own reiryoku to create bows and arrows, and even other weapons because it was really only limited to the shape of one's imagination. He had also taught Ichigo about things that Shiro should have been around to teach him, that the brothers would have learned together as they grew up but that Shiro would have an instinctive grasp of. Ichigo kept all of that to himself though, because the twins never talked about their Quincy powers and what little they said about their zanpakutō training made it clear to Ichigo that there was a lot that Urahara-creep and their parents weren't saying.</p><p>     If they weren't supposed to know, Ichigo didn't see any reason why <em>he</em> should be the one to tell them, when they'd probably call him a liar and wouldn't believe a word of it anyway. Ichigo remembered a time when he'd liked his little sisters a lot, far more than he'd liked Isshin and Masaki. Once his own training had really started though, and everyone including Isshin, Masaki and Urahara-creep had figured out that he was useless, they'd all turned their attention to the twins instead. The girls had started training right away even though they were younger, because <em>they</em> needed as much help as they could get. Everyone pitched in, even some strangers led by a grinning piano-toothed guy who supposedly knew how to control Hollow reiryoku. Apparently they all wanted the <em>girls</em> to have as much of a fighting chance as possible, whereas Ichigo was only thrown at Urahara-creep the one time to get some hasty training on top of Masaki's tricks with her bow. Ever since the twins had learned how exciting 'ghost powers' could be, Ichigo had just felt annoyance when he saw them, chattering about training and what they could do and barely sparing a word for him if he happened to enter their line of sight.</p><p>     Nibbling at the salad as it slowly filled the sick pit in his stomach, Ichigo stared down at his plate while the family talked around him. He hated how empty he always felt, with Ossan and Shiro gone, but the holes in his soul weren't something that could just heal. The two spirits had been too large a part of him when they'd been killed, and his soul hadn't been able to recover without them. He still had nightmares of Shiro's death, his brother playing like he always did to show off in front of Ichigo, when suddenly a flash of blue light made his brother's lizard-body explode in a million orbs of blue light. It was horrifying and woke him with tears on his face every time, and every time he looked at Masaki all he saw was the woman who killed his brother.</p><p>     He knew that she didn't actually know what she'd done, he knew that he could tell her and then she'd understand why he was 'useless'. She might even feel bad about it, but whenever Ichigo looked at his parents smiling faces as they watched Karin and Yuzu talk about training, all he could see was calculation in their eyes. He didn't want Masaki to realize that she'd destroyed the weapon she'd created, he'd rather be seen as a failed attempt in the first place, than be seen as a success because then they all would think that everything they were doing was right. So he kept the fact that his spirits who were the embodiment of his powers were dead now, even though they had been there and been strong, a secret from everyone. He'd never spoken a word about it, because they didn't deserve to know when they didn't really care.</p><p>     “Excuse me.” Ichigo mumbled after he'd finished his salad and rice.</p><p>     No one really noticed when he stood up and pushed his chair back in, or took his dishes to the kitchen sink. Ichigo was grateful that no one noticed, as he climbed back up the stairs to his room, because even just plain rice and salad without dressing didn't seem to want to stay down. Ichigo closed the door to his bedroom and turned off the lights, collapsing on his bed with a hand on his unsettled stomach. He always felt so sick, even his bones seemed to ache, and he knew that it was because his soul was full of scars and barely holding itself together but sometimes it felt like even what little power he still had wasn't enough to hold him together.</p><p>     As he lay there in the dark he could picture his soul just scattering to pieces and drifting away in an expanding cloud until he was spread so thin that he was nothing and nowhere at all. The old glowing stars on the ceiling blurred and faded, and Ichigo drifted off into uneasy sleep, forgetting all about his twisted family until tomorrow.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>There's a timeskip between all the chapters until chapter 6, but they get closer together now.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 2 - November 1, 2002</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ichigo calls Uryuu 'Ishida-sempai' because of reasons that will be explained later, just go with it for now. Also, the way he addresses everyone else indicates the distance or familiarity he has with them in this AU.</p><p>Edit 2/1/21: I added dates to the chapter names, so the Winter War is happening a bit later than canon by exactly one year, because first Karin and Yuzu were too young otherwise, and second I wanted Ichigo to be older for his part of the story in the next chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     “Seriously?” Ichigo asked himself out loud as he lifted his head from the desk and looked around.</p><p>     They didn't even bother to tell him that it was coming. Not that he really knew what was going on, not in detail, but the entire classroom around him fast asleep on their desks or the floor was very obviously Shinigami business. Ichigo stood, stretching because it seemed that he'd been asleep longer than a minute or two, and caught Ishida-sempai's eye. Of course <em>he</em> was awake too, he had just as much reiryoku as Ichigo and better reiatsu control. Ishida-sempai glared at him and then stood up from his own desk.</p><p>     “Ichigo?” Chad's voice asked from behind him.</p><p>     Ichigo glanced back to see Chad worriedly looking around at their classmates and then going to lay one of his neighbors down on the floor at a less awkward angle then the one they'd been sprawled on over their desk.</p><p>     “I take it you have <em>some</em> idea of what the hell is going on here?” Ishida-sempai asked coldly, pushing his glasses up his nose.</p><p>     “Pretty sure this is what my sisters were training for... whatever that entails.” Ichigo admitted.</p><p>     He and Ishida-sempai had never gotten along, and talking about private or family matters was definitely off the table in all of their past interactions. Ishida-sempai's clear dislike of him didn't exactly make Ichigo want to open up about the details anyway, Ishida-sempai knew <em>enough</em> about Ichigo's Shinigami family to hate him for that too.</p><p>     “And no one bothered to warn you? Or you just didn't think to mention it to anyone else?” Ishida-sempai demanded to know, stepping toward him almost threateningly.</p><p>     “No one bothered, they rarely do.” Ichigo waved away Ishida-sempai's irritation and turned to look over the classroom, noticing that the three of them weren't the only ones awake.</p><p>     “If you're awake just get up already.” Ichigo frowned at the loud troublemaker, Asano-san, as he lurched up and flailed about.</p><p>     “What's going on here? Why's everyone unconscious? Is it a gas leak? What do you know?” Asano-san pointed one finger at him in a demanding way, still keeping a distance from him.</p><p>     “I'm sure that Kurosaki-san's already shared as much as he <em>doesn't</em> know about the situation.” Kojima-san said as he poked at his phone, before frowning. “No signal at all.”</p><p>     “Um, maybe it's brainwaves? Or a robot army from the future sent travelers back to incapacitate mankind!” Inoue-san said as she helped Tatsuki stand up.</p><p>     “That's crazy! You know more than you're saying!” Honshō-san said as she adjusted her glasses and squinted between Ichigo and Ishida-sempai.</p><p>     “Can you <em>all</em> see ghosts?” Ichigo blinked around at the crowd, this was more than he'd expected.</p><p>     “You don't pay attention at all, do you?” Ishida-sempai asked, not looking nearly as surprised as he criticized Ichigo's apparently significant inattentiveness.</p><p>     “Ghosts? I've seen some monsters that no one else notices.” Kojima-san said with a pleasant mask.</p><p>     “That thing with the long hair that attacked us at school?” Honshō-san said with a look at Tatsuki and Inoue-san.</p><p>     “Huh.” Ichigo said brilliantly.</p><p>     “Why do you do this to me?” Ishida-sempai muttered before turning to the rest of them. “Those are <em>also</em> ghosts, they are called hollows and they eat other ghosts and the souls of living people who are strong enough to see them. I'm more concerned with what the Shinigami are doing right now that they felt the need to render everyone in the area unconscious.” He finished by turning back to Ichigo.</p><p>     “What? Shinigami? Are we all gonna die?” Asano-san wailed, grabbing for Ishida-sempai and falling to the floor when Ishida-sempai easily sidestepped him.</p><p>     “I dunno, they were getting ready to fight someone, no one ever wanted to explain it to me since I'd be useless in a war.” The looks he was getting gave him pause, before he recalled that in the living world he was considered a punk who was plenty capable in a fight. “I'd be useless fighting Shinigami and hollows.” Ichigo amended. “My sisters are stronger, so they've been involved in whatever it is for years, apparently it's been coming for a while.”</p><p>     “And you never thought to mention this?” Ishida-sempai hissed at him, irritated.</p><p>     “Ryuuken-sensei knows all about it, probably more than I do.” Ichigo defended, because he'd had more than a few conversations with the man who was the head of the Karakura General Hospital (and his sort-of mentor) that had alluded to things they didn't say.</p><p>     “So there's some kind of Shinigami war going on. Great, just great, I'm not sticking around for this.” Ishida-sempai said, heading for the door.</p><p>     “Where are you going?” Ichigo had no idea where Ishida-sempai thought would be better to wait out what was happening.</p><p>     If the Shinigami had put everyone to sleep here then they were expecting everyone to be here. Moving around could put them in more danger if they wound up somewhere that the Shinigami expected not to be populated.</p><p>     “Your sisters are younger, right?” Tatsuki asked, since she and Chad were the only ones who knew Ichigo well.</p><p>     “Yeah, the twins are thirteen.” Ichigo said.</p><p>     “Isn't that a bit young to be involved in a ghost war?” Kojima-san asked blandly.</p><p>     “It seemed important to our parents,” Ichigo shrugged “I guess I was the first choice but since my reiryoku is so low I can't use any of the abilities that anyone was expecting, so they had to train Karin and Yuzu instead.”</p><p>     “That's cold, dude.” Asano-san said, actually serious for once.</p><p>     “Nobody else seems to think so.” Ichigo shrugged again and shuffled toward the door, uncomfortable with the attention and the echo of his own thoughts on the subject, finding agreement here of all places seemed too strange for Ichigo to handle.</p><p>     Chad followed silently behind him, briefly touching his shoulder in a reassuring way as they left the room, making Ichigo once again glad that he'd found a friend like Chad. They nodded to each other in understanding of their situation, before everyone else trailed along after them from the classroom. Ichigo could tell that they were all nervous, shifting awkwardly and chattering noisily, but he didn't know what he could or should say to them. Instead he followed Ishida-sempai from a distance, up the stairs to the rooftop where they could see more of Karakura Town.</p><p>     “I don't see anyone moving anywhere.” Ishida-sempai said as Ichigo approached, putting aside their animosity temporarily.</p><p>     “So the whole town is incapacitated.” Ichigo stated, having a look for himself at the cars stopped in the middle of the street and the people asleep on the sidewalks.</p><p>     “I don't see any Shinigami either.” Ishida-sempai announced.</p><p>     “Okay.” Ichigo didn't know where that train of thought led.</p><p>     “Kurosaki.” Ishida-sempai looked at him with his eyes squinted, like he did when he couldn't figure out why Ichigo was such an idiot.</p><p>     Ichigo really got tired of that look. Glaring back he stubbornly refrained from looking at the rest of the town to try and figure out what Ishida-sempai expected him to have noticed too. Make the know-it-all tell him, Ichigo didn't see why he should play into Ishida-sempai's annoying insults.</p><p>     “You can't feel the difference? You're impossible.” Ishida-sempai finally sighed. “We're not in the living world anymore! The whole town is in the soul society. Can't you feel it out there?” He waved a hand in a random direction toward the edge of town. “All the massive reishi constructs out there around us? The Shinigami have transported the whole town into another dimension!”</p><p>     Ichigo was so taken aback at that, that he actually did look around, focusing and trying to feel what Ishida-sempai was talking about. His sensing wasn't terrible, he just had a hard time focusing on it for long periods of time so he generally waited until he needed to find something or someone before he started paying attention to that sense. Ishida-sempai was right, there was so much reiatsu and reishi around them even if it was far away, that they couldn't be in the living world at all.</p><p>     “Are we dead? Is <em>everybody</em> dead?” Asano-san wailed, yanking on Ishida-sempai's sleeve until he was thrown off and Kojima-san stepped over him.</p><p>     “Will we be returned to the 'living world' or is something else going on?” Kojima-san asked the both of them.</p><p>     “I dunno, I don't think that Urahara and everybody want to damage Karakura, it's just that they've got this enemy that they're scared of. Maybe they're trying to hide Karakura?” Ichigo guessed, unsure of what he was saying.</p><p>     “Shinigami business is Shinigami business. They shouldn't be dragging the living world into it, and <em>literally</em>.” Ishida-sempai nearly growled.</p><p>     The sudden appearance of a gateway opening in the sky cut off their hypothesizing. The reiatsu that spread over the town was massive and oppressive, sending everyone but Ishida-sempai to their knees. Ichigo struggled to lift his head up and look back at the source of the power. Two figures in white were walking through the sky as the gateway closed behind them. One of the figures turned and looked at them, and strangely enough he waved a hand almost merrily at them before turning back to follow the lead figure.</p><p>     “Well, they are Shinigami.” Ishida-sempai groused, arms crossed over his chest as he watched the two men cross the town.</p><p>     Ichigo practically climbed the fence to return to a standing position, determined not to remain on his knees when Ishida-sempai was able to keep his feet. Panting, and no longer able to keep an eye on the possible threat, he thought about what little he knew of the whole situation. He realized that the man who was powerful enough to oppress the whole town was probably the one, the one who his sisters were meant to fight. The one that they had wanted <em>him</em> to fight, if he'd been strong enough. Ichigo didn't like those odds. He may not be able to fight but he could judge power level well enough to know when to be worried, and he doubted that Karin and Yuzu were really any match for <em>this</em> Shinigami.</p><p>     Exchanging a glance with Ishida-sempai, Ichigo knew that they were in agreement about not getting involved under any circumstances. After all, they weren't stupid enough to throw their lives away in this war (that didn't even matter in the long run) when they had another reason to live for. The Shinigami could have their civil war, it wouldn't matter. Soon the Shinigami would have a bigger problem than a <em>civil</em> war, and if all went well there wouldn't be any Shinigami left anyway.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ominous. Oh dear...</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 3 - January 16, 2003</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I went back and renamed the chapters, with dates so that there's a timeline that's mostly the same as canon.</p>
<p>And it is at this point that we diverge from canon in regards to the Quincy and how they operate, because canon just wasn't working for me. So I'm making stuff up now... same names and they do rival the Shinigami in fighting power/skill but their powers and the way their forces travel and set up is different.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     It hadn't even lasted long, it was difficult to think of it as a big deal. Sitting on the sidelines and watching his sisters fight hadn't been anything breathless or nail-biting. He'd been a little concerned with the way they'd lept out of another gateway looking about two years older, but whatever had happened in there would have given them an advantage so it was fine, anyway if Isshin tumbling out of the same gateway moments after was any indication then that was all just a part of the plan.</p>
<p>     Ichigo had watched as his sisters had combined their abilities in some kind of end-all technique and batted around that super-powered Shinigami like he wasn't the strongest Ichigo had ever felt before. He still remembered the glare Ishida-sempai had sent him, as if to say he was judging Ichigo for being so pathetic in comparison when his bloodline was clearly proving to be a superior one. Ichigo didn't really think that it was any of Ishida-sempai's business that Ichigo had possessed other powers before his soul had been ripped into pieces so he had never bothered to tell him about his brother and...</p>
<p>     Shaking his head, Ichigo continued his ascent of the stairway, shifting gears to ignoring the phone call that he had just overheard which had prompted these memories. Downstairs Isshin was still on the phone with Urahara, discussing something about the girls, but Ichigo didn't want to hear it. It was bad enough that he'd actually been feeling sorry for them lately, he didn't want to after all the years he'd been in their shadow but ever since they <em>lost their powers</em> defeating that Aizen guy they'd reminded him of himself.</p>
<p>     At the top of the stairs he ran into Yuzu, literally bumped into her because she was just standing there and staring at the wall, holding a pillow in her arms. Ichigo stumbled back a step and sighed, between the three of them it was like living in a grief councilor's office. For a moment he flashed back to that day, just a few weeks after the girls' powers were completely gone and they had lost the ability to even see a simple plus soul, when the two of them had actually crept into his room one afternoon and thrown themselves at him in a weird hug thing that had sent them all tumbling onto his bed.</p>
<p>     He may not have liked them very much but he wasn't exactly the kind of guy who would shove a pair of thirteen-year-old girls to the ground, especially after they started crying on him. He supposed that he was expected to be sympathetic or offer advice about living without a zanpakutō or something. It occurred to him that he wasn't sure just what his family thought he was or wasn't capable of. He'd certainly never mentioned the spirits that had died, been ripped out of his soul, but he didn't know if his sisters thought that he was completely spirit blind or something. In the end Ichigo wound up just patting them on the back unenthusiastically until they quit crying and went away, because all he could think about as he held the girls was his own spirits, and it made him wonder if after death (when they all wound up in Soul Society) they would wind up with new zanpakutō spirits or something. He hadn't thought about it before, if it was even possible to have another spirit again, and thinking about it now was too painful with the twins clinging to him so he'd brushed them off.</p>
<p>     Edging around Yuzu, finally realizing that she was trying to listen in on the phone call and wasn't just standing there catatonic or something, Ichigo went to his room and sat down at his desk to finish the last homework assignment he had due the next day. This was his last year of high school, and he would prefer not failing out, keeping his grades up was the only way he'd get into a good school after all. It was as he was closing the folder that he kept all of his finished assignments in, when he looked up to take in the very last rays of the sunset outside of his window, that he noticed something.</p>
<p>     Down on the street, not close enough to be seen standing directly in view of the Kurosaki Clinic from the angle of any of the first floor windows, stood a familiar grey-suited figure. Ichigo froze, staring at the man who's own gaze was locked on him already. The man didn't even twitch despite his breath fogging the cold air and Ichigo felt himself take in a nervous breath, as a surge of adrenaline spiked through him and warned him of danger. Ishida Ryuuken nodded his head once and took a single step back, not turning to leave but indicating that Ichigo should join him.</p>
<p>     This was it. They were being summoned, all of them, it was time to go.</p>
<p>     Ichigo stood up from his desk and mindlessly grabbed the small bag of trash out of the can beside his desk, flipping off his bedroom light and closing the door behind him. He descended the stairs quietly and glanced aside at Isshin and Masaki, but they were both seated on the couch with their backs to him and didn't even look up as he passed through the room or put his shoes on at the door. Well, he hadn't really wanted to be noticed, even if he had the trash as an excuse. It was better this way anyway, he didn't think enough of this family to want to say goodbye.</p>
<p>     Tossing the trash bag in the nearby can once he was outside Ichigo jogged across the street and met Ryuuken-sensei without a word. The man nodded to him once more, approval on his hard-to-read face, and they walked together back to the Ishida residence. The walk was quiet and didn't do much for his nerves, until Ryuuken-sensei put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed comfortingly. Ichigo let out a breath and felt most of his nervous energy leave him as well. He'd been training for this, and Ryuuken-sensei would be there the whole time too, there was nothing to be worried about so early on.</p>
<p>     Ishida-sempai was already waiting when they arrived, dressed properly all in white and nearly tapping his foot with his impatience. Ichigo tried not to exchange glares with Ryuuken-sensei's son, he'd never liked the idea of competing with Ishida-sempai and he didn't think that Ryuuken-sensei saw him as any kind of replacement son but Ishida-sempai always seemed to hate him so much that his bad attitude nearly rubbed off on him.</p>
<p>     “Get changed, we need to leave quickly before the Shinigami's network of sensors begin to notice all of the transportations.” Ryuuken-sensei said as he sent Ichigo into one of several clean all-white bathrooms with a garment bag and the duffel that he usually kept in the underground training facility beneath Karakura General Hospital.</p>
<p>     Ichigo quickly changed into the white uniform that was similar to but didn't quite match what Ishida-sempai was wearing. It was a relief actually, to be properly outfitted for once. During training he sometimes wore workout clothes that Ryuuken-sensei provided for him but those were never an actual uniform. This was the first time he was wearing anything officially as a Quincy. He took a moment to look in the mirror at the clothing, trimmed in very thin blue lines and without the tails that hung from Ishida-sempai's coat. He was rather relieved about that, he didn't know how Ishida-sempai could fight with all those tails and that cape-thing all hanging off of him, normal pants and a coat felt better in Ichigo's opinion.</p>
<p>     He pulled the armband he usually wore on his wrist out of the sleeve that was stretched over it, revealing the Quincy Cross that he kept with him at all times. It had been a gift from Ryuuken-sensei back when he had first started training, and even though he couldn't use it the same way that a normal Quincy could it was still his most personal weapon. Ichigo tossed the armband onto the pile of clothes he'd changed out of and packed them away quickly, forgetting about them almost immediately.</p>
<p>     After the uniform he opened his duffel bag and started pulling on his few but trusted weapons. A blue belt that held five currently inactive Seele Schneider's (the only sword a Quincy would ever use and a weapon that Ichigo had taken to a bit too easily if the looks Ryuuken-sensei and Ishida-sempai had given him meant anything) went around his waist and a pair of Quincy Bangles (to help his pathetically non-existent ability to gather and mold reishi) went on his wrists. The rest of his weapons, tools and extra clothes remained in the duffel bag which he zipped closed again before throwing the strap over his shoulder.</p>
<p>     When he exited the bathroom Ryuuken-sensei was also striding down the hallway, fully changed in white with a cross-badge hanging on his chest. He was clearly ready to leave, and Ichigo fell into step behind him without the need for orders. Ishida-sempai adjusted his glasses and stood up properly from where he was leaning against the stairway railing, hefting his own bag and stepping up beside Ichigo and following his father out of the house.</p>
<p>     Ichigo watched as Ryuuken-sensei locked up the house and set the defensive measures that he didn't know how to work which would hide the house once they were gone. While Ryuuken-sensei was securing things Ishida-sempai turned to speak to him at last.</p>
<p>     “Why are you even coming? The summons was for able-bodied Echt and Gemischt, you don't qualify as able-bodied, you don't even have real Quincy powers anymore.” Ishida-sempai sneered, probably more insulting because of his own nerves, Ichigo could understand that.</p>
<p>     “I can fight, even if I'm not as strong as you I'm not completely useless. I've been training, I can help somehow.” Ichigo insisted, because it was true whether Ishida-sempai wanted to acknowledge it or not, Ryuuken-sensei <em>had</em> been training him.</p>
<p>     “We'll see about that.” Ishida-sempai muttered quickly before Ryuuken-sensei was back and leading them to the secluded transport location.</p>
<p>     They were contacted through some kind of device that looked like a cell phone, something that Ichigo hadn't seen before, which Ryuuken-sensei pulled out of a coat pocket.</p>
<p>     “Special Communications Unit to Unit 3600 come in.” The device chirped in a woman's voice.</p>
<p>     Ichigo was a little surprised, he knew it was outdated but women didn't usually hold higher positions or get promoted to higher ranks among the Quincy. Communications sounded like an important job though, so whoever the woman was she was probably pretty strong.</p>
<p>     “Unit 3600 acknowledged, have arrived at rendezvous point for transport.” Ryuuken-sensei responded, and a Schatten bloomed into the familiar five-pointed Quincy Cross on the ground just short of where they stood.</p>
<p>     The three of them stepped onto the black shadow on the ground and when they reached the middle their reiatsu was masked and the doorway between dimensions transported them to Silbern. They stepped out of the Schatten and Ichigo noted that their transport had been performed by a woman, who may or may not have been the one they had spoken to. She had black hair topped with a tiny white hat and blue eyes and waved them on out of the Schatten quickly, he supposed that she probably had a lot of other Quincy to transport tonight so he wasn't bothered that there was no conversation involved.</p>
<p>     As he followed Ryuuken-sensei who seemed to know exactly where they were going Ichigo tried not to gape at the fortress-like city they entered. The city was dominated by the palace known as Silbern, which rose high above them and was partially obscured from sight by all of the ice that crept up its sides. He tried not to shiver in the cold as they entered the city, and Ichigo noticed that he wasn't the only one trying to look around at their surroundings without gaining too much attention. Walking beside him, Ishida-sempai was just as curious as Ichigo was about all of the other Quincy from all over the world that were gathering here in preparation for the war.</p>
<p>     For a race that was supposedly nearly extinct and so worried about blood-purity to protect their abilities, it looked like the Quincy were doing alright. The growing army gathered around them looked huge to Ichigo, everyone in their white uniforms that nearly blended into the snow, ice, and white stone around them if not for the colored accents on their clothing, and he couldn't imagine how they could lose in what was coming. He'd seen how the Shinigami scrambled just to take care of an internal matter like one of their own captains defecting, and this was much bigger than <em>that</em>. There was a pride in his heart that he was a part of it, no matter what else was in his soul he was a Quincy, he shared blood with these people. They were all going to fight for something bigger than themselves, the place of their race in the three realms of the Living World, the Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo. After a thousand years of being considered expendable by the Shinigami who thought that they could rule the entire afterlife and do such a poor job of it, they were actually going to force the Shinigami to admit that the Quincy had a place in the balance.</p>
<p>     Ichigo couldn't wait for the war to begin.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A lot of notes:<br/>The flashback about Yuzu and Karin crying on Ichigo is because of the line from that song that goes: “I'm thinking of you when I hold my girl, and wonder if she'll ever love again”</p>
<p>The Quincy can travel by 'Shadow' or in Japanese 'Kage' but given the whole German themed Quincy thing I used the German word for Shadow, 'Schatten' instead, because the Schatten Bereich is the name of the pocket dimension where the Quincy were canon hiding in Seireitei, so the word is already there in canon so why isn't it used in place of 'Shadow' and 'Kage'?</p>
<p>Heh, to be honest, when I was first planing this story I was picturing Ichigo, Uryuu and Ryuuken (and maybe even Kanae) living in a big green-canvas tent among a huge group of other tents, but I realized that there's just no way the Quincy (like literally any of them) would ever stand for that... and as I was re-reading various chapters and looking things up on the Bleach.fandom.wiki thing I was reminded that Silbern has a whole empty city surrounding it so they already had housing anyway. I was annoyingly attached to that living-in-a-tent idea though, so I'm just a tiny bit disappointing that I can't use that. aw...</p>
<p>So yes, like I said in the beginning notes, I'm changing some things around, the Sternritter don't have that alphabet powers thing, and there are fewer people in that elite group, and because the Quincy don't seem to think as much of women as they do of men the highest rank a woman can get to in the current Quincy forces is to be in the 'Special Communications Unit' which is sort of a canon thing but I can't find it right now in the manga and I'm using the bleach.fandom.wiki article which says that there aren't any characters named or shown as members of it, so I needed characters for that Unit anyway, so I thought why not make it a predominantly female corps. because of the lack of other opportunities for advancement?<br/>Anyway, the point of that was that yes, I was describing Giselle Gewelle as the member of the Special Communications Unit who used Schatten to transport Ichigo to Silbern, which wouldn't have been her job if she was a member of the Sternritter.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 4 - July 2, 1995</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And I'm back at last! Real life got in the way of writing and posting, so I only have this chapter right now, I'm not sure if I'll have one ready by next month or not, but you can check my profile for possible updates.</p>
<p>Ha, more references to the song in this chapter though. I should really go through and make a note of all of them... and it's flashback time!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     In the light of the dying sun Ichigo walked along a crooked path all alone, wavering on his way home. Ever since that night he had been feeling worse and worse, and he couldn't help thinking of Ossan as the ache intensified. He didn't really wish to return home, but even with the distance growing as a chasm between himself and the rest of his family Ichigo knew that he would still be scolded for being out so late.</p>
<p>     Overall, he just wanted to crawl into bed and hide, and hope that he would feel better tomorrow even though he knew how unlikely that would be. As his feet navigated the sidewalk, weaving a bit from side to side with the exhaustion and ache in his soul, Ichigo just wanted to finish it and get home again.</p>
<p>     The dark shadows of a crooked tree scraped along the stretch of sidewalk he was approaching and then he felt it with a chill up his spine. His steps slowed further as he shivered, there were no words he could use to truly describe the feeling he was getting, he just knew that something more was wrong then just the torment within himself.</p>
<p>     Then, just as he was beginning to breathe faster he heard it. A howling, more terrifying than any wolf in the night, but even so his eyes snapped up to the full moon high above. As if there were answers for him there. A shape passed over the luminescent orb, triangular wings spread wide as the howl came again, and down came the raptor diving at its prey.</p>
<p>     Frozen in the darkness, targeted by the hollow beast, Ichigo didn't even consider moving. Meaningless, to run and hide, to try to fight. Too weak for either, he was completely useless here, all alone. This hollow would finish it. Would finish it right. The way it should have been finished that night just two weeks ago.</p>
<p>     The gaping maw, not a beak, revealed rows and rows of teeth. A meat grinder coming right for him. Ichigo didn't even close his eyes, just let his hands tighten on the straps of his backpack. So he was well able to see the rain of blue-white arrows that impacted the side of the hollow, perforating it and knocking it aside until its mask was pierced and the whole thing disintegrated.</p>
<p>     “Kurosaki, isn't it?” A stern voice asked from nearby.</p>
<p>     Slowly Ichigo looked around, catching sight of a man standing beside a white car, pulled hastily over to the opposite side of the road. The man's suit and hair were as white as the car, all of him glaring brightly in the night under the moon, even his glasses reflecting to the point of hiding his eyes.</p>
<p>     “Who are you?” Ichigo asked first, the stranger knowing his name didn't make him safe, the blue glow of reishi dissipating from his fingertips and the star dangling from his wrist didn't make him safe.</p>
<p>     “Dr. Ishida Ryuuken. Distant relative of Kurosaki Masaki.” The man said without moving toward him.</p>
<p>     “Oh.” Ichigo didn't know that she had relatives, especially here in Karakura Town. “Kurosaki Ichigo.” He nodded a bit, before a wave of dizziness overcame him and he fell to his knees, and then face first toward the sidewalk.</p>
<p>     It took a moment to register hands turning him over, big, steady hands that reminded him of Ossan. Distant but gentle and caring all the same. He curled over though, the pain in his soul focusing around his chest but making his stomach churn too. He didn't want to throw up on the nice man's white suit. That would be rude, and after the man saved him.</p>
<p>     “You aren't injured, the hollow didn't touch you.” Dr. Ishida said as he held one of Ichigo's eyelids open and looked at his eye.</p>
<p>     “Ossan's gone. It hurts...” Ichigo groaned out, tears welling up.</p>
<p>     “Ossan?” Dr. Ishida muttered to himself, still checking Ichigo for injuries.</p>
<p>     “Ossan.” Ichigo repeated, reaching out and tugging at the star around Dr. Ishida's wrist. “Ossan and nii-san are gone.”</p>
<p>      Dr. Ishida went still, eyes unreadable behind his glasses as he stared down at Ichigo, and Ichigo let his hand drop off of the cross.</p>
<p>     “Auswählen? June seventeenth, at this time of night?” Dr. Ishida asked quietly.</p>
<p>     “A- Aw- Auswählen?” Ichigo asked, nodding at the correct date, the date that he could never forget.</p>
<p>     “Why are you out here, your parents should be trying to stabilize your condition!” Dr. Ishida sounded mad.</p>
<p>     “They did?” Ichigo asked, sounding unsure. “Was attacked by a hollow then too... Dad healed me...”</p>
<p>     “Not correctly, clearly.” Dr. Ishida snapped, and then Ichigo was being picked up, falling into the crook of Dr. Ishida's arm and feeling the man's strong shoulder against the side of his head.</p>
<p>     “I have equipment that can help slow the degradation of your soul, your parents can be informed once you aren't about to dissipate at any moment.” Dr. Ishida said as Ichigo felt himself being buckled into a car.</p>
<p>     He didn't care anymore. He was so tired... Dr. Ishida didn't seem so bad, he kind of seemed nice, for an angry stranger. Ichigo fell asleep in the car and didn't wake up for hours, until he opened his eyes in a room as white as Dr. Ishida's newly donned lab coat.</p>
<p>     Dr. Ishida was standing on the other side of the room when Ichigo sat up, looking down at another bed where a woman was laying. Ichigo slid off of his own bed and wandered over.</p>
<p>     “Who's she? Is she okay?” Ichigo asked, tugging on Dr. Ishida's coat.</p>
<p>     Dr. Ishida looked away from his clipboard and down at Ichigo with a hard look, which made Ichigo withdraw his hand, but then the man kind of sighed and answered.</p>
<p>     “My wife, she lost her Quincy powers the same way that you did, but she is not managing nearly as well as you seem to have been doing.” Dr. Ishida explained.</p>
<p>     “Oh. Sorry.” Ichigo said, looking back at the pale looking brown-haired woman with dark circles under her closed eyes.</p>
<p>     “I doubt that the techniques I'm using to help her are going to work on you, you aren't a full Quincy but I had thought the damage was the same, and therefore could respond to the same treatment. It seems however that there is some previous lingering damage that has been torn ragged again by Auswählen, do you know what that could be, or would your parents?” Dr. Ishida asked as he steered Ichigo by the shoulder back to the other bed.</p>
<p>     “Nii-san.” Ichigo said as Dr. Ishida lifted him back onto the bed when he couldn't manage it on his own.</p>
<p>     “I was unaware that you had a brother.” Dr. Ishida raised an eyebrow like a cartoon character, challenging his statement.</p>
<p>     Ichigo didn't want to tell him, he'd never told anyone, maybe he shouldn't even have mentioned nii-san. He looked down, staring at all the blank white, everywhere around him everything he looked at reminded him of his brother. Biting his lip was the only way he could stop from crying.</p>
<p>     “I don't know anything about your situation, but I'm a doctor, it's my calling to help people who are suffering. Anything that you tell me will remain private between the two of us, but it could help ease your pain.” Dr. Ishida said, a hand on Ichigo's shoulder again.</p>
<p>     “My nii-san was a hollow,” Ichigo finally mumbled, “he liked to come out and play at night when we were little. He was showing me how he could stand on two feet instead of four, and... mom... killed him.” Ichigo poked at the star on Dr. Ishida's wrist again to show what he meant.</p>
<p>     “He came out?” Dr. Ishida asked as he tucked the cross deeper into his sleeve.</p>
<p>     “He and Ossan both lived in the inside world. Ossan tried to teach me when I got older, even though nii-san was gone... but now Ossan's gone too.” Ichigo cried quietly, hands balling into fists on his knees where he sat at the edge of the bed.</p>
<p>     “Hollow, Shinigami, and Quincy.” Dr. Ishida stated flatly, before shaking his head and squeezing the hand on Ichigo's shoulder. “There are a few more tests I can run then, perhaps a more tailored treatment regimen will yield better results.”</p>
<p>     Ichigo looked up questioningly, blinking away tears as the nice doctor watched him collect himself.</p>
<p>     “We will see if we can mend a bit of the damage from both of your missing powers, if we can patch the holes in your soul you may be able to grow around the damage.” Dr. Ishida went on to explain the tests, and how reiryoku worked, it made even more sense (after two or three comparisons) than when Ossan explained it.</p>
<p>     It sounded like they were going to use the scraps of hollow reiryoku that his brother had left behind for him to bond Ichigo's soul back together over the tears where the Auswählen thing had ripped out his Quincy powers. Ichigo didn't really like the idea of living without both his brother and Ossan, but Dr. Ishida sounded like he really wanted to heal him, and Ichigo kind of didn't want to disappoint him since he was being so nice.</p>
<p>     Ichigo actually dared to lean forward against Dr. Ishida and give him a hug after he finished explaining, and for a moment he thought that he'd done something wrong because Dr. Ishida got all stiff and frozen, but then he felt big warm arms around his back and Ichigo was glad that he hadn't been wrong after all. He really liked Dr. Ishida, he didn't want to make him mad, then he might not get to stay here in the white rooms where he felt really safe.</p>
<p>     He didn't think that anyone would come flying through this room to kick him, even if Isshin hadn't done that more than four or five times before all that stopped, he was still always half-expecting it. Ichigo didn't think that Dr. Ishida would come barging in with his bow and shoot at him for no reason.</p>
<p>     A hand patted his head, and then he was pushed back to lay down, and Dr. Ishida tucked the white sheet over him and told him to try to sleep so that he would be awake for the tests later. Ichigo slept better than he had in weeks.</p>
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